Italy Italy | Italia Italia (2017)
Iranian director Kaveh Sabaghzadeh's first feature
(namava.ir)

The film was made in a musical, fantasy and comedy genre with the plot of ‘Italia Italia’ saying, “I love you and it is none of your business.”

It was shown for the first time at the main competition section of the Fajr Film Festival in 2017.

Nader, a man obsessed with Italy, sings and dances his love to Barfa, from the moment of their encounter to their wedding, in this delightful Iranian musical comedy adorned with references to cinema, literature, music, and of course, Italian culture.

Although the main character of the film is Nader (Hamed Komeili), what captures the narrative of Sabbaghzadeh's story is the journey of the protagonist (Sarah Bahrami), which begins at it's peak and then slowly starts to diminish. The process in which the collapse of this character happens is so delicately and scrupulously woven together in the script that it reflects the concepts of identity and gender in the everyday life of a young couple in a very clear and obvious way and makes Barfa largely look as an experienced and integrated personality.



But more than the script and the character traits, it is Sara Bahrami's unique performance as Barfa that makes her play as the protagonist believable and her fictional journey important and attractive to us as viewers.

On the other hand, despite the fact that the film is a completely classic and narrative one, it has been able to cautiously approach the boundaries of modern cinema and add some color and flavor to the movie by borrowing elements from modern and postmodern cinema.

"Italy Italy" is full of cinematic and literary references. In spite that the film claims it was adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri's novel of the same name, there are also references to Khaled Hosseini's last published work. Reconstruction of the scenes from famous movies and direct references to Dariush Mehrjui's "Hamoon", along with the presence of some of the cinematic figures playing themselves are some other references of the film. But perhaps the most significant one in "Italy Italy", the reference to Roberto Benini's film "Life is beautiful."

We also see the same complexity of the characters as in Benini's film, while the overall atmosphere of the film is filled with laughter, wit and humor. "Italy Italy" is like "Life is beautiful," beginning with characters in an ideal atmosphere and, by portraying a romantic love, it provides a relaxing and appealing atmosphere for its audience, and just like "Life is beautiful," starting with the daunting situations of the story and Even the transformation of his characters, it preserves the intimate and heartfelt atmosphere of the first half of the film, but not as professionally as, and to the extent, Benini provides in "Life is beautiful."

The main plot of "Italy Italy" is life and it's complexity for Barfa and Nader (Hamed Komeili and Sarah Bahrami) , but by adding some sub-plots (as a result of his insights into the problems he faced in the process of making his first feature film), Sabbaghzadeh causes the logical course of events suffer, and also by paying unneccessary and irellevant attention to the theme of filmmaking, he keeps "Italy Italy" hanging between a romantic melodrama (or a musical romance) and a social chit-chat.

Perhaps if Sabbaghzadeh fully entered the genre and its customary rules, "Italy Italy" would both have a more solid structure and leave a better effect by distracting the audience from the narative atmosphere he so perfectly created.


Cast: Sara Bahrami, Homayoun Ershadi, Hamed Komeili, Jahangir Mirshekari, Farid Sajjadi Hosseini, Reza Sakhaei, Naser Sajadi Hosseini, Ali Mollagholi-Pour, Danesh Eghba Shavi, Faezeh Alavi, Anamehr Akhlaghi, Reza Koohestani